


Emily's Adventure

by AlexinBrum



Series: Bigwoods in Time and Space [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23780080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexinBrum/pseuds/AlexinBrum
Summary: Emily's at her first live football match with her dad, but then something strange happens, and the eccentric man sitting next to her seems to have something to do with it.
Series: Bigwoods in Time and Space [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1713127





	Emily's Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this series of stories in 2013 - one each as Christmas presents for my three nieces, who were aged 14, 12 and 9 at the time. Without telling them I was planning to write the stories, I asked them where and when they would travel to, and based the stories on what they said. It was wonderful to give them the chance to travel in the TARDIS, even if it was just in their imaginations.

Emily couldn’t stop grinning. Jostled by the crowd and with eyes as big as dinner plates trying to take everything in, she could practically taste the excitement in the air. Keeping a tight grip on Daddy’s hand, they snaked through the other spectators towards their gate. She could hear the roars and cheers, the hooting and drumming, leaking through from the stadium into the concrete corridor and she longed to get out there, to lend her whoops and whistles to the mix.

'Here it is,’ said Daddy, and they slowly manoeuvered themselves to the right and up the steps. 

Emily sucked in an awed breath as they emerged into the bowl of the stadium, the dazzling green football pitch spread out in front, blue sky overhead and the roar from the crowd getting louder and louder. She let go of Daddy’s hand and followed him up the concrete steps to their blue plastic seats, squeezing past a family and an older couple on the way. When they sat down Emily had Daddy on her left and a young man on her right.

‘You OK there?’ Daddy asked. 

‘Yeah, I’m good. What’s the time?’

‘‘Ten to. Not long now.’

‘Cool.’

Waiting was no chore, there was so much to look at and listen to. Daddy read the programme, sharing the odd bit of interesting information, while Emily gazed down at the pitch, watching the officials and security people busying themselves, treading down divots from the players’ warm up session, signalling to each other, speaking into walkie talkies. She hadn’t paid much attention to the man sitting next to her, so was slightly startled when he suddenly burst out with, ‘It’s very exciting, isn’t it?’, grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.

Emily felt a bit sorry for him - he was clearly there on his own and didn’t have anyone to share his excitement with. She smiled back and replied, ‘Yeah, it is.’

‘Is this your first time here?’ Daddy asked him.

The man’s grin vanished, his brow furrowed and his face became serious, lost in concentrated thought. He sat like that for quite some time, but just when Emily thought that perhaps he hadn’t even heard the question and was thinking about something else, he looked up and replied brightly, ‘Do you know, I actually think it might be. How amazing is that?’ Then he grinned again and went back to looking around the stadium.

Emily and Daddy shared an ‘odd but harmless’ look, and then all thoughts of their strange neighbour were forgotten as loud rock music pumped out of the speakers and the players were announced onto the pitch, each one greeted with thunderous applause.

The teams lined up for the start, captains facing each other over the centre spot as the referee tossed a coin. All three peered down into the grass where it fell, and the ref spoke briefly to the home captain, who elected to kick off. The away captain trotted backwards a couple of metres, and the home captain placed her foot on the ball, looking around to suss out exactly where all the other players were. The ref raised a hand high in the air, then whipped it down, blowing the whistle to signal the start of play. But nothing happened. Because the home captain had disappeared. She had completely vanished into thin air.

There was a strange kind of awkward stillness as crowd and players alike tried to take in what had happened. Emily looked at Daddy, who frowned and shrugged. She could see all the players on the pitch looking around at each other, the refereeing team running together to consult. A low murmur bubbled up among the supporters as everyone started talking to their neighbours about what had happened. Emily turned to say ‘That’s weird’ to the strange young man on her right, but when she saw his face the words died on her lips. 

Gone was the big, stupid grin and the slightly dopey expression. He was glaring at the pitch with sharp laser eyes. Almost like he was scanning the area, in the same way she would expect a policeman to scan a crime scene. He seemed older somehow, the youthful excitement replaced by a focused seriousness, and he was holding a long, thin metal object which looked like it could be used for a medical procedure, or for fixing a car. It had a light at the end which glowed and it was making a strange high-pitched buzzing noise as he moved it around, pointed towards the pitch.

Suddenly he turned his head towards Emily, catching her staring at him. He held her gaze for a second, before saying ‘That was odd, wasn’t it?’

‘Probably felt sick and needed to rush to the toilet,’ said Daddy. ‘Back soon, then it’ll start.’

‘Oh right,’ said the young man. He didn’t sound convinced. ‘Is that what happened?’

‘Must be,’ said Daddy. ‘They can move very fast, these professional footballers. Ran off while we were all looking at the ref.’

‘I see,’ said the young man thoughtfully. ‘What do you think?’ This time he was looking straight at Emily.

‘No way,’ she said confidently. ‘No one’s that fast. And I was watching everything. The captain vanished. Like that.’ She snapped her fingers.

Daddy sniggered and went back to reading the programme, but the young man kept looking at Emily. A slight smile was tickling the corners of his mouth. 

‘But that’s impossible,’ he said, although it was more like a question than a statement.

‘Impossible or not, that’s what happened. One second there, the next second gone. I don’t know how or why, but that is definitely, one hundred percent, what happened.’

For a moment they both stood there, eyes locked, and then he grinned. A huge, beaming grin just like he’d had on his face before kick off. He lowered his voice so that only Emily could hear him. ‘You’re absolutely right,’ he said. ‘Something very strange just happened, and I’m going to find out what. Would you like to help me?’

‘Definitely!’ said Emily, without hesitation. 

‘I’m the Doctor,’ he said, stretching out his hand towards her.

‘Emily.’

‘Nice to meet you, Emily.’ 

They shook hands.

‘Wait five minutes then tell your dad you’re going to the toilet. I’ll be waiting in the corridor. We can’t talk properly with him listening.’

Emily frowned. This didn’t feel right. She shouldn’t go off with strangers, even though she was now fourteen and could look after herself. He saw her concern.

‘Just five minutes, I promise. You’re absolutely right to be cautious, but we’re in public. Nothing can happen to you with all these people around, can it?’

Emily thought about it. He was right, if he tried anything funny all she had to do was scream and security would come running.

‘OK,’ she said.

‘Excellent. Good. Yes. Right. I’ll see you out there in five minutes. Don’t be late - we haven’t got any time to waste.’ And with that, he was off, long old-fashioned coat tails flapping around his ridiculously long legs. Emily looked at the giant stadium clock and slowly watched the seconds ticking by. It was the longest five minutes of her life.

Finally the five minutes was up, so she turned to Daddy and said, ‘I’m just going to the loo.’

‘Don’t be too long, you might miss the kick off, if they manage to find where that player’s gone running off to.’

‘I won’t.’

Heart hammering, because she knew she was doing something a bit naughty and perhaps even a little bit dangerous, Emily squeezed out past the older couple and the family and skipped down the concrete steps. Waiting for her at the entrance to the corridor was the Doctor, looking even taller and more gangly than he did when he was sitting down.

‘OK, we don’t have much time,’ he whispered urgently, bending down so he was looking her in the face. ‘I can tell you’re a very intelligent girl, so listen carefully.’

Emily nodded.

‘You and I both know that something not normal just happened. Something very not normal.’

Emily nodded again.

‘That player didn’t run off the pitch, she vanished. She was taken. By someone or something that has technology far beyond this planet’s current capabilities.’

A word popped into Emily’s head, a word beginning with A, but it scared her, so she tried to forget it and concentrate on what the Doctor was saying.

‘I scanned the pitch and I’m picking up some residual signals that should allow me to triangulate the coordinates of the origin of the whateveritwas that took her. They may be more advanced than twenty first century Earth, but they’re way behind me. So, find the baddie, find the footballer, easy peasy. What I need you to help me with is why. Why would anyone want to steal a football player?’

He looked at her with a kind of lost, urgent earnestness, waiting for Emily to speak. So she spoke.

‘The only reason I can think of is if another team wanted her. There’s a lot of that in football, teams swapping players. Every team wants to get their hands on the best ones. They pay millions and millions of pounds.’

‘And is the one that disappeared today, is she a top player?’

‘Oh my god yes!’ Emily couldn’t help showing her enthusiasm. ‘She’s amazing. Definitely the best player in the UK, possibly even the world. I think there was a poll last month that said she might even be the best football player ever. She’s awesome!’

The Doctor stood up and started pacing around erratically, waving his arms about and grabbing handfuls of his own hair, making it stick up all over the place. He was talking non stop, and Emily struggled to keep up with the words tumbling out of his mouth. The word she’d thought of, the word that scared her a bit, came back and wouldn’t go away.

‘So someone wants the best football player ever. They’re probably forming their own team. But it’s clearly not Earth technology so it’s someone on another planet collecting people from Earth. That doesn’t make sense, they’d obviously look different. And it’d be clear they’d been taken against their will, because they’d refuse to play. Unless they’re being blackmailed. Or given something in return. But then why take them in the middle of a match, why not on a Sunday while they’re watching telly? I’m assuming it’s more than one, maybe it’s just her. Maybe it isn’t anything to do with football at all. The world’s best footballer disappears from a football match, it’s definitely to do with football. I’m not getting anywhere with this. Come on Doctor, think! First, find out who took her, then figure out why. In which case, I’d better get going. Thank you for your help, Emily.’

He started walking off, but she couldn’t let him. Not without saying that word, the word that was buzzing around in her head, the scary word beginning with ‘A’ that seemed so crazy, but so obvious. She had to ask.

‘Wait! Before you go. Are you... I mean... I think... are you an alien?’

He turned round and looked at her with narrowed eyes, but narrowed eyes which sparkled with an amused twinkle.

‘Would it bother you if I was?’

‘No,’ Emily said, honestly. ‘I’ve just never met an alien before. I just wanted to check. So I’d know.’

‘It doesn’t freak you out? Make you want to run away? Scream or something?’

‘Why would I want to scream?’ She rolled her eyes. He may be alien, but he was also being a total drama queen. ‘It just means you were born somewhere else. You’re still you. My friend Moana is from Tonga but don’t want to scream and run away from her.’

‘You are an exceptionally intelligent young lady, Emily. You’re quite right. It’s what people do that makes them scary, not where they’re from. I wasn’t born on this planet, but I visit quite a lot and I don’t like it when other aliens, who are perhaps not quite as nice as me, steal human beings from in the middle of football matches. So I’m going to go and have a word. Hopefully it won’t take long and I’ll have her back ready to play before you know it. See you!’

He turned and walked off again, but this time Emily ran after him.

‘Wait! Wait a minute!’ she called, catching up then jogging alongside him as his long legs carried him swiftly along the corridor.

‘If you’re not from Earth, where are you from?’

‘I’m from a planet called Gallifrey, which is in the constellation of Kasterborous. You won’t have heard of it.’

‘How did you get to Earth? Do you have a space rocket or something?’

‘I have a ship. She’s called the TARDIS. And she’s better than any space rocket.’

‘Is that where you’re going now? Are you going to travel in your ship to go and have a word with the aliens who took the England captain?’‘That’s right.’

‘Can I come too? Please. I could help.’

The Doctor wheeled around, then leant back on a blue, wooden shed type thing, arms folded. It looked to Emily as if it probably opened up to sell newspapers or hot dogs or something. 

‘And how could you help, do you think?’

‘I could make you cups of tea. If you drink tea, that is. I’m also great at making cakes - I could make a big cake for the journey. Or I could give your ship a good clean. If it needed it. I’d just really like to see it. I’ve never seen a space ship before. Please.’

She gave him her best pleading puppy eyes.

‘You really want to see my ship that badly?’

‘I really do.’

‘You’re looking at her.’

Emily’s forehead contracted in confusion. 

‘What?’

‘You’re looking at her.’  
Emily looked around the corridor. There was nothing but fast food outlets and litter.

‘I can’t see anything.’

‘Oh yes you can.’ The Doctor clicked his fingers and a door in the side of the wooden hotdog booth swung inwards, flooding the corridor with a strange blue light.

‘This is it? This is your ship?’ She couldn’t help sounding a bit disappointed. She didn’t really know what she’d been expecting, but this definitely wasn’t it.

‘Emily, Emily, Emily. You should know by now that appearances can be deceptive. Take a look inside.’

Emily was definitely not expecting what she saw when she stepped around the corner. Through the narrow wooden door in the small wooden shed was an enormous room filled with lights and monitors and levers and buttons. In the middle was a control desk with bright white neon tubes in a transparent column above it. There were stairs and doors leading to other rooms she couldn’t even see. It was beautiful.

‘Go on in,’ said the Doctor. ‘Take a look around. Just don’t touch anything. We don’t want to end up in the middle of Birmingham. Again.’

Emily stepped through the door, still not quite believing that she was in a real, proper, genuine space ship. ‘I like Birmingham,’ she said. ‘My Auntie Ali lives there. Could we really go and visit her?’

‘We could. But not yet. There’s that small matter of a disappearing footballer we need to sort out first.’

‘We?’ Emily grinned.

‘I’d love to have some help. If the offer’s still open?’

‘Definitely!’

‘Great!’

They smiled at each other, then the Doctor spun into action, whirling round the desk, flicking switches and pushing buttons. He pulled out the metal device he’d used earlier from his pocked and stuck it into a hole in the desk.

‘Sonic screwdriver,’ he explained. ‘I took readings from the pitch just after the player was taken. The TARDIS should be able to work out where the transmat beam originated from.’

Strange symbols appeared on one of the monitors hanging from the ceiling, symbols that looked like they could be numbers or a foreign language. The white neon tubes began to move up and down, accompanied by a rasping, squealing, scraping sound.

‘Geronimo!’ laughed the Doctor, ‘Hold tight!’ and Emily gripped a nearby railing as the ship rocked and tipped, throwing them both all over the place.

After just a couple of minutes, the ship became stable again and the neon tubes stilled. 

‘Right,’ said the Doctor, ‘Let’s find out who’s behind this.’

\--------

Jang Mo waved a tentacle over the communicator’s sensor and a miniature 3D image of his rival appeared. ‘You’re going DOWN!’ he croaked. ‘I have just secured a weapon that will beat all yours and win me this war.’

‘Have you now?’ replied the hologram, ‘You seem very confident. Some might say overly confident. As if you are trying to convince yourself. You know as well as I do this war is far from over. I still have over two hours to amass my weapons, and my arsenal is getting stronger by the minute. While you are wasting time with idle boasts, I am focussing on building my power base.’

‘You can search the universe for the rest of eternity, but you won’t find anything that can destroy my latest acquisition. Your days are numbered, Mal Bo.’ With another wave of a tentacle he ended the communication and the tiny image vanished. He gave an evil chuckle and continued with his work. 

\--------

‘No!’ exhaled the Doctor, looking at the scanner screen in the desk. ‘They’re not. They can’t be.’

‘What?’ pleaded Emily. This sounded bad.

‘I know they’ve got up to some shady things in the past, but this really takes the cake.’

‘Tell me!’

He looked up from the scanner, but kept his arms braced against the console, as if to steady the rage that was obviously building within him.

‘Do you like playing games?’ he asked. Emily was slightly taken aback.

‘Yes,’ she replied hesitantly, not sure if it was the right answer.

‘Card games, for example. Do you play card games?’

‘Yes,’ said Emily again, wondering where this was going.

‘Have you ever played Top Trumps?’

‘Yeah, quite a few times. Me and my sisters, we’ve got a few different packs. It’s not my favourite though. It gets a bit boring after a while, when you know the cards too well and get stuck with one that you know is always going to lose.’

‘See, I knew you were an intelligent girl. You’re right, it’s a rubbish game. You’ve got so many better games on Earth - games with strategy and luck and complex rules and games where you have to cooperate or games where you have to deceive or games that rely on skill. Top Trumps just relies on knowing that the car on your card has good mileage compared to the car on someone else’s card. It’s OK up to a point, but not very satisfying.’

‘No,’ Emily agreed, still puzzled, and now getting a bit impatient. ‘But what’s this got to do with disappearing footballers?’

The Doctor stood up to his full height, anger in his eyes and a determined look on his face. 

‘The transmat beam that took her from that football match on Earth comes from this planet, the planet Nithros Seven. The creatures that inhabit this planet are not nearly as intelligent as you are, Emily. On this planet, Top Trumps is the official sport, although here they call it Haflog. Haflog is big business, everyone plays it, all the time in every sector across the whole planet. There are leagues and competitions and prizes and many people use their success in Haflog as a sign of power and status. As a result, the stakes are pushed higher and higher and there’s always someone looking to take it in a new direction, invent a new competition, find a new way to make money out of it.’

‘And you think...?’ Emily was beginning to put two and two together.

‘Oh I don’t think. I know. I’ve had to interfere a couple of times before when things got a bit out of hand, but this is a whole new level of wrong. And what you’re about to see will confirm it.’

He strode over to the door they’d come in by and yanked it towards him. ‘It’s definitely a space ship then,’ thought Emily, because they weren’t in a concrete stadium corridor any longer. They were in an enormous, green cave. It looked moist and sticky, like an inside-out frog. Dotted around the space were dozens of metal cages, about two metres square, and in each one was a person. Some were sitting, some were standing, some were lying down. There were men and women, of all different ethnicities, but no children or old people. They all looked like they were probably in their twenties, and all looked strong and fit. In the middle of it all was a large flat board, about the size of a door but black and shiny, hovering in mid air. Next to it was a dark green creature, obviously some kind of alien, which looked a bit like an octopus - a big undulating blob with several tentacles, each of which was doing something, either stroking the table, tapping the table or brandishing some kind of item.

Emily hung back in the TARDIS, trying to process what she was seeing and unsure whether it was safe to step out. The Doctor didn’t hesitate, striding towards the alien, waving his arms and shouting as he went.

‘Jang Mo you unpleasant, immoral, power-hungry, despicable...’

‘Doctor!’ interrupted the blobby alien thing, trying to sound pleasantly surprised, but unable to hide the alarm underneath. ‘What are you doing here, old friend?’ 

‘You know damn well why I’m here. And I am not your friend. No friend of mine would start snatching people from Earth just to win a ridiculous Haflog war with that equally corrupt operator Mal Bo. Let me guess, you’ve got a game coming up and you needed a new topic. Mountains and movies not challenging enough any more?’

‘I... I... I don’t know what you mean,’ stammered Jang Mo. Even though Emily couldn’t really work out where its face was, she could still tell he was nervous.

‘So what’s all this then?’ The Doctor waved his hand around the room at the caged people, some of whom Emily was now beginning to recognise as some of the top sports men and women on Earth. ‘Let me see,’ he continued, ‘I’m guessing the world’s best footballer would have a very high score on agility, probably stamina too. And strength. And I bet she has intelligence too, all that strategic thinking. Teamwork as well. Wow. It’s going to be difficult for Mal Bo to beat you this time.’

Emily finally grasped the full story. Any fear she may have felt about this alien room and creature in it was burned up by a sudden fiery rage. She burst out of the TARDIS and stormed up to Jang Mo, her feet sinking slightly into the spongy, sticky floor as she went.

‘You’re playing Top Trumps?,’ she yelled at the creature ‘Seriously? Top Trumps with PEOPLE! You can’t do that. It’s really really REALLY not right! These are human beings, not playing cards. They’ve got lives and feelings and friends and family. You can’t just steal them away from all that for your own amusement.’

The Doctor stood and watched, arms crossed across his chest, smiling with pride and affection as she shouted, her angry finger jabbing at Jang Mo as she spoke, eyes glittering with fury.

‘How would YOU like it if you suddenly disappeared and woke up in a cage? A cage with no food or water or a toilet. And a strange creature kept coming and staring at you. Worrying if you’d ever see your family again. Wondering if your family were looking for you, or if they’d been taken too. Just because we don’t look the same as you, doesn’t mean we don’t matter. But maybe you can’t understand that, because you don’t have any feelings. Because if you had any feelings at all you’d have realised a very VERY long time ago that this is wrong. In fact, if you’d thought for ONE SECOND about anyone other than yourselves you wouldn’t even have started.’

Emily stopped to take a breath, blood pumping in her ears. The Doctor started applauding.

‘Bravo Emily. Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself. Did you listen to her, Jang Mo? Did you hear her? A fourteen year old Earth girl has worked out what you and your miserable friends seem incapable of understanding. Well I hope you’ve got it now. Because you are going to return every single one of these people to their lives. Right. Now. Trust me, you do not want to find out what I will do to you if you don’t.’

The Doctor had a determined, steely glare that couldn’t have been more different from the excited puppy look that he’d had when Emily first met him. He seemed older, genuinely threatening. Emily suddenly became aware that Jang Mo was not the only alien in the room. 

There were a few tense moments, where the Doctor and Jang Mo stared each other down, and then the Doctor spoke.

‘So, time’s ticking. What’s it to be?’

‘Fine. Have it your way, Doctor,’ it said, admitting defeat. ‘I shall call off the game and we shall return all the creatures to when and where they came from.’

The Doctor grinned, his long limbs turned from steel to rubber again and he bounded over to Jang Mo planting a big kiss on his cheek. It looked somewhat taken aback by the Doctor’s sudden display of affection.

‘Excellent! Good decision. And of course you won’t mind if I pop by and check on them all, just to make sure they arrive back safe and unharmed. Starting I think with this footballer here. What do you say, Emily. Fancy accompanying me to a match?’

‘Yes please!’

‘Well then, I think we’d better take our leave.’ He turned to Jang Mo and took a bow. ‘It was lovely to see you again. So lovely in fact that I shall be keeping an even closer eye on you from now on. I very much hope you never give me reason to make a follow-up visit.’

At that, he twirled around, gave Emily a huge grin and shouted, ‘I think we have a stadium to get to. Come on you Spurs!’ before striding over to the TARDIS and leaping through the door.

‘Wrong team!’ shouted Emily after him, rolling her eyes. ‘It’s an international, not a league match.’ It was amazing how someone so unbelievably clever could be so totally stupid at the same time. She was really going to have to teach him more about football. He was just an embarrassment. 

\--------

Back at the stadium, Emily stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around. They were in the concrete corridor, next to the toilets and the souvenir shop, just where they’d started. The Doctor stayed in the doorway as she turned around to say goodbye.

‘I’ve brought you back to just after we left, so no-one should have noticed you were gone.’

‘Thanks,’ was all Emily could think of to say. There was so much she wanted to express, but she couldn’t find the words.

‘No, thank YOU. It was a privilege to travel with you. If more of the universe was as intelligent and caring and passionate and brave as you, then I wouldn’t have to spend so much time trying to sort out all their messes. Don’t ever stop being brilliant.’

Emily blushed, and smiled. ‘I won’t,’ she said. 

‘And enjoy the game! It’s a good one.’

‘Aren’t you coming to watch?’

‘Nah. Between you and me,’ he leant down to whisper in her ear, ‘I already know the result.’ He stood up again. ‘Besides, I’ve got to go and make sure all those other athletes have been returned to the right times and places.’

There was a sudden cheer from the crowd.

‘I’d better go,’ said Emily. I think they’re about to kick off and Daddy’ll wonder where I am. Goodbye Doctor. And thanks for a fantastic adventure.’

As she ran up the concrete steps into the stadium the scraping, squealing, creaking sound of the TARDIS leaving was drowned out by the noise from the stands. The two teams were on the pitch, facing each other for the kick off as if nothing had happened. The home captain stood with her foot on the ball. The ref blew the whistle and the game began.

**Author's Note:**

> Seven years after I wrote this, Emily is still massively into football. She's an experienced referee and plays for her university team.


End file.
